Boston Marathon

Last week's running of the Boston Marathon--26 mi. over New England hills from Tebeau's Farm at Hopkinton, Mass., to the clubhouse of the Boston Athletic Association--was the 36th. It was the 14th for 44-year-old Clarence De Mar, a school-teacher of Keene, N. H.

Last week Teacher De Mar had a special inducement: first U. S. runner and first Finn to finish would qualify for their respective Olympic teams. The field of 220 started with a strong wind behind them. De Mar kept his usual pace, well behind the leaders. They were three seasoned Finns, Willie Kyronen, Willie Ritola and Karl Koski; Jimmy Hennigan, a 40-year-old Medford, Mass, runner who won last year; John McLeod of Boston, who covered the first twelve miles in record time; Paul De Bruyn, who last summer left Manhattan to work his way home on a cattle-boat and win the German marathon championship.

Six miles from the finish, the race was clearly between De Bruyn and Hennigan. For five of the six miles the two ran almost shoulder to shoulder with Kyronen, who liked the cool weather, holding on behind them. Then, in the last mile. De Bruyn began to work his well-muscled legs faster in their choppy stride. He was 200 yd. ahead at the finish, with Hennigan second, Kyronen third, De Mar 18th, McLeod 27th. Far behind McLeod straggled a sad marathoner named Charles E. Bradford of Lowell, Mass. He was seized by a policeman as he finished the race, hustled to court where his wife was suing him for maintenance.

Exhilarated by victory, De Bruyn took a shower, dined, bowled for an hour, danced till midnight, then rode home to Manhattan on a day coach to be on time for his job of stoking a furnace in the Hotel Wellington. He explained how he trained: by running from home to work (15 mi.) several times a week; by running around the boiler room of the Hotel Wellington; by running up & down its 26 flights of backstairs.

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